T.J. Oshie scored the game tying goal on a deflection and then he and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in the shootout to give Philipp Gruabuer a much deserved 4-3 victory over a speedy, pesky, and well coached Carolina Hurricanes club in Raleigh.

The beer will taste good for the Caps and their fans after this one.

Washington played FAR from their “A” game and they received no help from the referees in a come from behind win. As stellar Comcast analyst and former Capitals #16, Alan May, stated afterwards, sometimes the guys in stripes do too much homework before the game on who has how many penalty minutes on the season and they end up calling the game in a biased fashion. That certainly appeared to be the case on Friday night.

But that’s what makes this triumph for Washington more special. They played a lousy first period, mostly because they hadn’t skated in two days and because they had zero intensity, and trailed 1-0. It could’ve been worse, if not for Grubauer (27 saves), who kept them in it. They were getting pushed around a little physically in the first 20 minutes and somewhere after they killed an early second period penalty, they started playing with snarl and anger. As Justin Williams stated after that middle frame, the Caps played with more intensity.

One guy who had intensity from the opening puck drop was the captain, Alex Ovechkin. The Gr8 was doing what he does best, shoot the puck often and he was really moving his legs. On the second of the Caps only two power plays in the contest in period two, Ovi made a great back check that allowed John Carlson to set up Nicklas Backstrom (1 assist) the other way on an odd man rush. With Ovechkin trailing the play with speed and #19 with the puck, Cam Ward was in big trouble, and the best goal scorer on the planet made no mistake about it, burying the biscuit to even this contest up after a sweet back pass from Nicky.

Shortly after that, the zebras went penalty happy against the Caps again and suddenly Coach Barry Trotz’ crew found themselves down two men for 38 seconds. However, Jay Beagle, Brooks Orpik, and Karl Alzner plus Grubauer did an outstanding job killing that situation off. You know what they say, what happens on a two man advantage usually decides the outcome, and once the Capitals got back to even strength they took the lead. Matt Niskanen (two assists) pinched down on an offensive zone faceoff and he kept the puck in deep and fed it to Kuznetsov behind the net. With Ovechkin streaking down the slot and drawing the attention of the Carolina defenders, #92 found Justin Williams alone by Ward’s right side of the cage and #14 buried it for his seventh goal of the season. Mr. Crazy Hair, who worked his rear off all game, like most nights, has a hot hand right now.

The Caps would continue to play well in the middle stanza, but they unfortunately made a couple of mistakes in the offensive and defensive zone on one instance and that allowed Justin Faulk to get a one on one chance with Grubauer and the American defenseman made no mistake about scoring.

Heading to the third period it was anyone’s game and Carolina received another early power play and scored just eight seconds into it on a deflection that #31 never saw. The Canes kept pressing and they received an additional gift power play when a complete garbage penalty was called on Ovechkin for tripping in the neutral zone. That one was completely laughable.

But credit the Caps, they killed off the sixth man advantage of the night for the home club and then the last nine plus minutes they were relentless in an attempt to tie up the game and then try for the victory.

Their hard work and determination paid off when #77 tipped home the point shot of Dmitry Orlov with 6:04 remaining. As they’ve done a lot of recently, the Capitals scored because they had guys going to the net and they got the puck in that direction at the right time. That’s how you score on good goalies like Ward and Jaroslav Halak, you make them have a hard time seeing the puck because usually if they see it, they will stop it.

In the overtime, the Caps had some good chances and the Canes had five shots on net, but Grubauer, who kept Washington in this one until they found their legs, was not to be dented again. He stopped the first shooter in the gimmick and the second hit the pipe while Oshie and Kuznetsov used moves that May termed “just doesn’t seem fair” to win the game.

Again, this was not a pretty or dominating win.

However, it was a big one because the Capitals had to dig deep to find intensity and some anger and channel it the right way. They weren’t happy with some of the stuff Carolina was pulling and the whole team and bench were pretty ticked off at Tom Kowal and Evgeny Romasko, the clowns on ice for the night, yet they put all of that energy into their game and grinded out a win. It was a victory that required grit and mental toughness and the Caps certainly displayed that in this win in the Tar Heel State against a club that gives them fits.

Washington has now won six in a row and are 19-7-3 (41 points) for the season. They’ll take on the Canadiens at the Verizon Center on Saturday night at 7 pm in a game that will be featured on Hockey Night in Canada in the Great White North. You can bet that Rush guitarist and die hard Montreal fan, Alex Lifeson, will be watching. The Habs were defeated, 4-2, by the San Jose Sharks on Friday night and all world goalie Carey Price was pulled just 26:44 into the game after yielding four tallies on 18 shots. So will he get the cage for Montreal on Saturday against Braden Holtby or will Al Montoya, who owned the Caps with Florida last season, get the net? That’s TBD.

But Washington will deal with that later on Saturday night.

For the rest of Friday night and into early Saturday, I’ll steal from the late, great Chuck Thompson, “Ain’t the Beer Cold!”

Notes: Shots on goal were 30-26 for Carolina, but it was 24-23 Washington, at even strength…the Caps were beaten 33-25 from the dot…the Capitals had 24 hits to just 18 for the Canes. Washington, as May also stated, is at their best when they use their size to their advantage and hit…Ovechkin logged 19:41 and had six shots on goal in 13 total shot attempts…Oshie had four shots on goal in 20:21 of ice time, he was fabulous once again; sign the man long term!